Commercial seed production is a process that involves many steps. In the case of corn, for example, harvested ears of corn may first be husked (i.e., have their husk material removed), sorted, dried, and shelled before the corn is placed into bulk storage. When it is time to package the seed corn, the seeds are removed from bulk storage, and they may be sized, conditioned, and/or treated before being packaged for sale or distribution.
Many factors can affect the quality of the end product seeds. For example, variations in the moisture content, ripeness, size, and quality of the harvested crop at the upstream end of the process may influence the effectiveness of each stage of the seed production process. As a result, there may be substantial variability in the end product, which is undesirable. Further, variations in the harvested crop may cause operating parameters such as feed rates to be adjusted in order to accommodate the variations. However, adjustments to an operating parameter at one step may result in undesirable effects downstream. For example, gravity tables may require a relatively consistent flow rate in order to function properly, and hence use of surge bins may be needed in order to equalize flow rates.
In some cases, some measurements are taken at a downstream location along the process through manual sampling of the seed, and the process upstream may be manually adjusted accordingly. Manual sampling, however, introduces an additional variable, as human errors may result in inaccurate information for process control. Furthermore, such manual sampling is typically isolated to one or two points along the process, which may not be enough to provide an accurate picture of the process conditions along the entire process path. In addition, such conventional sampling techniques are labor-intensive and may result in delays as the process is stopped to conduct the sampling and/or to make corresponding adjustments.
Further, manual sampling may not produce data at intervals sufficient to rapidly determine the existence of a statistically significant error. For example, when samples are taken at half hour increments, it may be hours before a sufficient number of data points are recorded and an error trend is identified. Further, during this time, seed product may continue to be produced and the defective seed product may combine with previously produced seed product. When the defective seed product is inseparable from the previously produced seed product, the continued production of defective seed product may contaminate additional seed and make it unusable.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved system and method of seed production which allows for more consistent and thorough measurements of process conditions and provides for adjustment of process parameters to optimize the quality of seed produced in an efficient and cost-effective manner.